ORDER

1. Delay condoned.

2. Leave granted.

3. These appeals challenge the judgments and orders passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench, thereby rejecting the writ petitions filed by the appellant(s) for transferring of investigation to an independent agency like the Central Bureau of Investigation (for short, ‘CBI’).

4. The only reason given in the impugned judgments and orders is that since the charge-sheets had already been filed, no ground was made out for transfer of investigation to another agency, viz, CBI.

5. In our view, this cannot be a ground for rejecting the prayer for transfer of investigation to an independent agency. When serious allegations have been made by the appellant(s), the High Court should at least have assigned reasons in brief as to why the grounds prayed for transfer were not found to be sufficient.

6. In that view of the matter, the impugned order(s) are quashed and set aside and the matters are remitted back to the High Court for deciding them afresh, in accordance with law.

7. We request the High Court to decide the petitions as expeditiously as possible and in any case within a period of six months from today.